The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, which can execute data overwrite by receiving data from outside, and to a data overwriting method.
In the prior art, when data overwrite is performed in an image forming apparatus, a controller first compares the version of data, which is stored in a storage device in a processing section of the image forming apparatus, with the version of data for the storage device in the processing section, which is located on a Web site. When the version of the data on the Web site is a later one, the controller acquires the data from the Web site and delivers it to the image forming apparatus. In the image forming apparatus, the data in the storage device of the associated processing section is overwritten.
In the controller or the image forming apparatus, data in storage devices in respective processing sections is overwritten in succession. For example, data in a system processing section is first overwritten, data in a scan processing section is secondly overwritten, data in a print processing section is thirdly overwritten, and data in a finisher processing section is fourthly overwritten.
In this overwrite method, however, if data overwrite fails during the data overwrite operation, or if power is disrupted during the data overwrite, there would be such cases that data is lost and normal operation cannot be started even if the apparatus is rebooted or power is turned on again.
In addition, when specific data is overwritten, mismatching would occur in data between respective processing sections and there would be such cases that normal operations cannot be started even if the apparatus is rebooted or power is turned on again.
In particular, when the configuration of an option processing section, which is associated with a device connected to the image forming apparatus, is altered, normal operations cannot be performed in many cases. For example, a communication error occurs due to mismatching of data between respective processing sections.